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Match ReportsDulwich 3rd XI v Walton -on -Thames 3rd XI 5 May 2006 Result: Dulwich winning draw
A grey, damp, and miserable day greeted the start of the 3rd XI 2006 Surrey Championship campaign at Walton on Thames. Upon winning the toss, the home side inserted Dulwich on a wicket which appeared to be the type upon which both runs and wickets would be hard to come by.
Despite the early loss of Adrian Ting with the score on 19, Dulwich’s start was particularly gratifying bearing in mind the weather. Amer Saeed grew in confidence as the overs passed, while Sunil Mahey - who had arrived at the crease at 1st wicket down – was solid in defence but was also quick to punish the bad ball. As the partnership increased in size, so did the understanding between the two batsmen, and the running between the wickets was excellent at times.
It was ironic therefore that the partnership was broken via a run out – Mahey’s failure to return quickly to his crease being hampered more by the conditions than anything else. The 2nd wicket partnership was worth 109, of which the left hander had contributed 48.
Amer Saeed, meanwhile, was going from strength to strength, flaying anything loose to all parts of the ground. It therefore came as something of a surprise when he eventually fell for 75, but nevertheless this was a significant input for his first Surrey Championship innings for Dulwich.
The middle order contributed as swift runs were now sought ahead of the declaration, the highlight being a rapid 22 not out from Ejaz Ahmed. Dulwich declared in the 49th over with the score at 213 for 6.
The entire Dulwich seam attack was made up of debutantes, all three of whom were to capture their first Championship wickets for the club. First was Keith Dawkins who, having been absent from the pre-season warm-up matches through injury, looked like he hadn’t been away and soon tempted one of the Walton opening batsmen to nick a delivery to Alistair Sykes behind the wicket. Then Paul Skevington accounted for the opposition’s skipper who had come in at number three, with an edge to slip. Finally, Ejaz Ahmed, coming on at first change, picked up two wickets in two balls, clean bowling both batsmen.
Walton never looked like they were going to chase the target (despite being given more overs than they had bowled) and at 51 for 4 they were battling to save the game. However, wickets remained hard to come by in the conditions, and the remaining opening batsman was being dogged in his determination to resist all temptation to increase the scoring rate. In an effort to open the game up, the spinners were brought on. Gripping the ball was difficult and neither leg spinners were able to achieve success. However, off-spinner Sunil Mahey finally removed the Walton top order batsman and suddenly an opportunity to win the game materialised.
Ahmed returned to the attack and captured two further wickets (ending with analysis of 4 wickets for 6 runs from 12 overs), but Walton survived through to the end of the innings despite some very confident shouts for LBW decisions, closing on a total of 118 for 8. After the match Dulwich skipper, Jeff Mascarenhas was heard to claim that Dulwich could have pocketed all 13 points if he had won the toss or if one or two umpiring decisions had come their way. Unlike his unsporting and sulking alter ego Jose, Dulwich's own "special one" credited both sets of players for persisting in the dreary conditions. Despite Jeff’s disappointment of failing to come away with a victory, he was encouraged by the complete Dulwich team performance. Key contributions with bat and ball have already been mentioned, whilst in the field no chances were missed. Jeff highlighted two good catches at slip from Stephen Heath. As Jose might have said …if Walton had shown interest at some stage in winning the game, then there might have been a result!
With only one other match being completed, the Dulwich threes start out in second place and next week take on champions Reigate Priory at the South Bank University ground.
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